The state has approved the air-quality permit application for DTE Energy’s planned natural gas-powered plant in East China Township.

Plans for an August groundbreaking are in the works.

Representatives from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality took questions during a public hearing and comment period that ended earlier this summer. Despite what were mostly environmental concerns, officials said the company met all the state and federal requirements for its $1 billion plant.

John Vial, a permit engineer who was at the June hearing, said many of the concerns addressed issues under the purview of other state agencies.

“We have very limited authority as to what we can do to either approve or disapprove a permit,” he said. “I know there was a lot of discussion … about the use of renewables, such as solar and wind, and our agency doesn’t have any type of jurisdiction or authority to regulate that. That is done by the Michigan Public Service Commission. So, we had a very limited scope of criteria.”

The planned 1,150-megawatt plant is expected to be operational by 2022, replacing three coal-fired power plants, which are supposed to be retired by the following year.

Among the concerns from complainants to the DEQ had been the effects of air toxins from putting the new natural-gas plant to use while coal-fired facilities are still technically up and running, according to the state’s comment response document dated July 16.

Other comments had been made about sulfur dioxide emissions, air-quality monitoring, and whether natural gas combustion is truly climate-friendly.

DTE spokesman Brian Corbett said the energy company shares the same commitment to the environment, citing its plan to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

“A team of DTE engineers worked together on submitting this air permit and determining the specifications and technologies that will be used at the Blue Water Energy Center,” he said in an email. “Including use of advanced-class combustion turbines and high-efficiency combined-cycle design to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and dry low nitrogen oxide burners and selective catalytic reduction to control (nitrogen oxide) emissions.”

According to a letter about the permit decision, the state’s response to comments — there were six verbal comments at the hearing and 422 written in total — also identifies special conditions to the permit that have been modified and includes the accompanying rationale.

One modification, for example, put an emission limit for particulate matter equal to or less than 2.5 microns in diameter for a cooling tower at the proposed plant and additional sulfur content monitoring for the natural gas.

Now that the DEQ permit is final, Corbett said DTE will move forward with a groundbreaking for the plant sometime in August. He said the plant would help produce enough to power 850,000 homes.

For more about the DTE project and the MDEQ’s response to concerns, visit www.deq.state.mi.us/aps/cwerp.shtml.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.